Pa. couple shoots at fireflies thinking they're aliens

Summer is in full swing on the East Coast. Temperatures have been in the 90s, the crickets are chirping, and fireflies are lighting up the night sky — or are they really lasers from alien ships? Jesse Shields, 30, and Katherine McCloskey, 22, can’t be sure.

According to Penn Live, the couple shot wildly into the night sky in an attempt to scare away what they believed to be extraterrestrials. In reality, they were the luminous insects known as fireflies, or lightning bugs.

Reportedly, Shields fired a gun into the air, then ran to a nearby house where he asked the residents to call authorities because something was after him. The putative Earth defender broke the neighbor’s screen door with his pistol before running to another home.

Shields’s screams and McCloskey’s crying awakened the second home’s owners. Shields asked them to call 911, and if he could take a shower, as he believed he had “goo” on him that was burning his flesh.

Instead, the police were called. Shields has been charged with burglary, criminal trespass, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

Shields was put in Clinton County prison, pending $250,000 bail.

McCloskey was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, DUI, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness. She is also being held in Clinton County prison, in lieu of $15,000 bail.